


Is there anything you can't do?

by hopelesssapphic



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:09:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29604354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopelesssapphic/pseuds/hopelesssapphic
Summary: If you like angst and fluff Idk what to tell ya, read this story perhaps.
Relationships: Penelope Garcia/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Is there anything you can't do?

**Author's Note:**

> so all the way back in November I got super motivated to write and I just spit out almost 4.000 words and didn't look at it for 4 months so I edited it and here we are. 
> 
> I also didn't mean for it to get as angsty as it did.

Making it to Quantico is the biggest items on your bucket list, you never actually expected that you would work here. Well not so much working as training but even that is several steps farther than you ever thought you’d get. 

You’re excited but you can feel something churning in the pit of your stomach and it’s almost enough to turn around and go home. You’re not a complete newbie in the field of tech analysis, it’s just that there’s not really a school that offers hacking 101 on their class registry, it’s also hard to get real-world experience catching criminals at a school. 

Finally gathering the courage to step into the elevator you watch the doors close and push the button for your floor, losing your final chance to back out of this. Closing your eyes you hear the beep of the elevator passing floors until it dings, hitting your floor. 

The elevator came to a full stop and you step out of it, looking at the information you had been given looking for whose office you’re supposed to go to. Glancing down at the folder your eyes scan over the document until you see the name, Penelope Garcia. Moving away from the elevator you look for signs that will point you in the right direction. 

Finding none you take the next best option and walk up to a lanky-looking agent with brown messy hair, almost making him look like he belongs in a boyband. Almost losing the courage to actually talk you clear your throat getting his attention. He looks at me questioningly as I gather up the courage to speak, “sorry, excuse me. I’m looking for Ms.Garcia, I’m new here and I don’t really know where anything is…” You say realizing you said too much and losing confidence in yourself. 

The agent looked at me, giving me a sympathetic smile. An expression crosses his face before he responds, “Her office is actually just down this way, I can walk you if you’d like.” he offers. 

Pondering his offer you make up your mind and nod in agreement. He starts walking in the direction he pointed to only seconds earlier and nods his head for you to follow him. Following after him you struggle to keep up with his pace but manage nonetheless. Taking a few deep breaths you feel the uneasiness from earlier melting away.

Walking down a hallway the agent stops at a door and goes to knock before pausing, his hand inches from the door. He turns towards raising his hand in a small wave, “My name’s Spencer by the way,” he says, giving a reassuring smile. 

He turns back to the door and knocks before just opening it and walking straight in. Passing through the threshold he spouts a little greeting, “Hey Penelope,” he says, the woman who is obviously Penelope continuing to do whatever she’s doing on her computer.

Walking into the room behind him you hear Penelope question him, “Hey, what are you doing here? Don’t you have paperwork to do from your case?” she asks teasingly.

“Oh, believe me. I do have paperwork. But… I have brought a guest with me, she asked for directions and I just couldn’t resist an excuse to get out of paperwork for 10 minutes,” he chuckles. Taking the opportunity to get familiar with your surroundings you glance around the room, seeing several computer monitors and a collection of items on the desk. By the looks of it you hope this is going to be a pretty laid-back internship.

The woman who you’ve learned to be Penelope types something into her computer before spinning around in her chair. Her eyes lock with yours and you can feel a blush creeping up your face, she stands up with a beaming smile on her face, “Hello, I’m Penelope. I’m the BAU’s personal technical analyst, Queen of all knowledge, and the one and only oracle of Quantico.” 

Letting out a small chuckle you introduce yourself, “Hi, I’m y/n, I’m nervous, beyond terrified, and completely out of my comfort zone,” you say with a nervous smile hoping to make it sound like you were at least mostly joking. A look crosses her face but before she can say anything Spencer speaks up, “I think I really should be getting back to my paperwork now,” he says before turning and exiting the room, leaving you alone with Penelope.

“Come on, you can have a seat over here,” she says pointing to a second chair. You walk tentatively over to the desk and sit down, begging the gods that you won’t make a fool out of yourself today.

o0o

Walking into your apartment you toss your stuff down on the table before closing the door and kicking off your shoes, not bothering to actually put them away. You shuffle into the small living room and plop yourself onto the couch and turn on Netflix hoping to find something to distract yourself from the never-ending sea of nerves that have settled in your stomach.  
You didn’t necessarily embarrass yourself or mess up too bad, but it felt like you couldn’t function. Forgetting things you’re good at and as far as good impressions go you’re sure it could’ve been better.

You get up off the couch grabbing some leftover pasta from the fridge and settle back down on the couch with a bottle of wine, clicking on the first show you find, knowing you’ll be too buzzed to follow along anyway.

o0o

Working with the BAU has gotten easier over the last few months. You’ve pretty much gotten used to the team and their dynamic. You’re certain they’re betting on something but you don’t know what. You’ve stumbled in on several conversations and heard small bits before they noticed you watching. They were saying things like, “give it two weeks,” or “20 bucks it’ll happen by the end of the month” every time you walk in on them having a similar conversation they always scatter away acting like you just walked in on some top-secret meeting. You know it’s none of your business but it’s weird that it keeps happening, and it feels like they’re talking about you.

You didn’t even realize your thoughts were drifting until you hear Penelope’s voice, “Hey, earth to y/n. You ok in there?” she sounds concerned, looking up you see a small frown on her face.

Shaking it off you respond, “yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking, I get lost in my own head sometimes.” You can see the frown melt off her face as her expression returns to normal. You can tell your response satisfied her questions, and she turns to go back to her work as you feel a pang in your chest.

You continue on with your work not thinking much of it. An hour or two goes by before either of you stops what you’re working on. Glancing up at the clock you realize you were supposed to leave an hour ago but had gotten too caught up in thought that you didn’t think about what time it was.

Standing up abruptly you grab your coat and sling your bag over your shoulder walking towards the door, “hey, I’ll see you tomorrow,” you call out opening the door. 

“Oh, ok. Well, before you go, I was wondering if you wanted to grab coffee tomorrow morning before work,” she asks, nervousness coating every word. You look back seeing the fear on her face before smiling at her.

“I would love that,” you say the smile returning to her face. “See you then,” you call out before leaving.

o0o

Changing into pajamas and slipping into bed you lay down, your brain working a million miles an hour. Did she ask you on a date? Was it just a friendly thing? She’s most definitely straight right? I know I’ve been kinda flirty but I didn’t really mean it that way. But she was also flirty back, if not more so.

You try to tell yourself that that’s just her personality but it feels more personal and intimate when you do the ‘fake’ flirty thing compared to when she and Morgan flirt. It’s more than just how you talk to each other. You used to feel like you were over exaggerating at the time but you remember ever since you started it felt like someone was always watching you and when you would turn around you would quickly catch her gaze before she would quickly look at her computer screen.

Now that you think about it, you remember the butterflies you would get when she would hand you something and your fingers brushed. The feeling of banter turned into batting the other on the arm and catching yourself staring at each other's lips. The need to always be right next to each other, and feeling like something is missing when you’re apart. The way you love hearing her say your name and how you love the little crinkle in the corner of her eyes when she's happy. 

You can’t stop thinking about how you feel around her, you’re afraid she could never actually like you back. You’re scared of dropping hints because you like being friends with her and on the off chance that she's straight you don’t want her to hate you.

You try to fall asleep knowing that thinking about it further will only make you sad. From now on you promise yourself you won’t do the flirty thing anymore, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. You don’t think you’ll be able to take heartbreak.

o0o

You’re walking out of the elevator balancing your bag in one hand and your keys and phone in the other. You see Penelope walking urgently towards the bullpen and you call out, “Hey Penny,” she stops walking long enough for you to catch up before she continues her pace

“If you didn’t want to get coffee with me you could have just said something instead of blowing me off,” she said, hurt evident on her face. “We have a case, you can come with us to the briefing,” she offers pretending to have gotten over the hurt she had shown earlier.

You just nod your head not knowing how else to respond. You want to explain that you hadn’t meant to blow her off, your power had gone out in the middle of the night and your alarm didn’t ring, but she seems upset and you doubt she wants to hear your excuses at the moment. It hurts to see her angry at you but maybe it’s for the best. You already decided you don’t want to get too attached, you can’t handle getting your heartbroken

You sling your bag over your shoulder sliding your phone into your pocket, trying to keep up. The sound of heels clicking on the tile the only thing grounding you to reality.

Reaching the conference room you stand off to the side watching Hotch brief the team. You glance over at Penelope from time to time, a smile not plastered on her face but you could tell it was anything but sincere.

You stare into space thinking of how to apologize, you still want to stay friends, after all, Hotch’s voice brings you back to the moment as you realize you’ve been staring at Penny. You look away just as she turns her head in your direction. Not paying attention to where you’re looking, you make eye contact with Morgan, he gives you a questioning look before looking at Penelope, clearly knowing that something was up.

Hotch finishes his briefing and everyone gets up to leave, having to grab their go bags and inform their family that they’ll be gone for a few days. Everyone leaves except Morgan who blocks your exit. Shutting the door he walks over to where you’re standing, you look at the ground not wanting to make eye contact again.

“Hey,” he says, less of a greeting and more of a warning. You look up not wanting it to seem like there's anything wrong. “What’s going on with you two? First I get a call from an upset Penelope this morning, and now the two of you won’t even look at each other. I’ve never seen the two of you act like this.”

His voice is stern and you know he’s not in the mood for evasive tactics. You decide to just tell him the truth, figuring it can’t hurt, “the thing is, I agreed to go out with Penny for coffee and the power went out at my place this morning and I woke up late. Now she thinks I ditched her and I don’t want her to think I’m just making up a lame excuse for not showing so I didn’t tell her why I wasn’t there,” you blow out an exasperated puff of air and look back at the ground hearing Morgan sigh.

“You know she won’t be mad at you, just tell her the truth. She’ll understand it was a mistake,” he says sounding sure of himself.

“I really want to tell her but it’s better off if she just stays mad at me.” you can feel tears brimming in your eyes as you look up and see the confusion on Derek’s face.

“Why would you say that? You’re her best friend,” he sounds even more puzzled.

“Because I love her… and I know she could never feel the same way about me. I really don’t want to develop feelings for my heart to get crushed. I decided it’s better to cut my losses, so when I leave it’ll be like I was never here.” You can’t believe you spilled your heart out to Morgan, he probably thinks you’re dramatic, but what if it’s worse, what if he hates you. 

You basically just admitted that you like girls. The whole team is going to hate you now. Coming out of your thoughts you feel a wave of panic set into your thoughts. You try to think about it but suddenly it feels like your throat is closing up and you can’t breathe causing you to panic more.

You realize that you’ve started hyperventilating. And you can feel tears streaming down your face and you feel yourself losing control of your body, your thought still running. You feel like you’re looking down at yourself from above. You exposed your biggest secret and now your only friends hate you. 

Hearing a knock on the door you jump, setting yourself into a new round of uncontrollable tears. Pulling your knees up to your chest and covering your ears with your hands you close your eyes. You don’t want to hear or see anything else as you bury your face in your knees. 

Despite your best efforts, you can still hear Morgan open the door. Rossi’s voice fills your head as an audible sob leaves your body, you choke back more not wanting anyone to hear you. You can hear soft footsteps treading across the floor stopping in front of where you let yourself collapse against the wall.

You can feel a hand on your shoulder and you try to control your breathing but can’t. The feeling of not being in control sends you spiraling farther and you hear a voice ask for a glass of water.

Moments later you can feel a hand on your prompting you to grab a cup. You raise the cup to your lips as you feel someone rubbing circles on your back. Taking a few sips of water you feel your breathing start to slow and the fog over everything starts to clear. 

You drink a few more sips of water and can finally take in a deep breath, feeling more or less in control of your own body. You wipe the tears out of your eyes and off your cheeks and look to see Rossi kneeling next to you, looking the most concerned you’ve ever seen him.

Rossi clears his throat letting his hand rest on your back, “do you need to talk? We’re all here for you if you need anything.” You just nod your head and keep your gaze fixed straight ahead. Finally starting to feel exhaustion set in.

After a few minutes of making sure you’ll be ok Rossi stands up and goes to talk to Hotch about delaying the jet for a bit. 

As soon as Rossi leaves Derek comes over and sits next to you on the floor. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cross your boundaries like that. Do you need anything?” You can tell that he’s genuinely concerned and you want to tell him it’s not his fault but you know he won’t believe you and he’ll blame himself anyway. 

After spending several minutes trying to convince him you’re ok he gives up and goes to join the rest of the team, pausing in the doorway, “you will call me if you need anything, right? I don’t want you to do anything stupid while we’re gone.”

You nod, “I’ll be fine, but you need to go. The team is waiting for you.” Barely able to keep the tremble out of your voice, you nudge him towards the door, closing it behind him flicking the lights off, and trying to settle the newly forming headache.

When you know for sure they’ve gone you sit at the conference table laying your head on your folded arms. You are really asleep but you’re not awake either. You don’t know how long you’ve been sitting there until you hear footsteps directly outside of the conference room.

The door opens lightly and you hear someone walk in, not turning on the light, You can feel them standing behind you and you know it’s Penelope without even having to look. You could recognize her perfume in a room full of hundreds of people. She lightly places a hand on your shoulder and even though you’ve been trying your hardest to get rid of the feelings you have for her you can’t help but swoon at how gentle and caring she is.

Her voice is soft and compassionate when she finally does say something, “I’ve been looking for you. Are you ok?” You don’t have the energy to respond so you just bury your face farther into your arms. Penelope gets worried by your lack of response, “Derek told me where to find you, but he was adamant that you need to be the one to tell me what happened. Can I sit next to you so we can talk?” she asks. 

You nod your head in approval and you feel her hand slide off your shoulder, you miss the feeling immediately. She sits in the chair next to you and you finally pick your head up and open your eyes adjusting to the brightness of the sun streaming through the windows.

You turn your head in her direction expecting her to say something, but when you finally look at her face all you see is a look of pity, “oh my god, have you been crying? What’s wrong?... has something happened?” she sounds so genuinely concerned but you can’t tell her the truth.

You return your gaze back down to the table not able to bear seeing the look on her face, “I think I need to go home,” is all you can say.

“y/n talk to me, I just want to make sure you’re ok,” you can tell she sounds panicked and you can’t bring yourself to look at her, instead you pick your stuff up off the floor and walk out of the room, leaving her sitting there surprised and hurt. 

You walk into the elevator and push the button for the main floor. Just before the elevator door shuts all the way it reopens, Penelope stepping in beside you. The doors close and the elevator starts moving down, “if you don’t want to talk that's ok, but I’m bringing you home, I want to make sure you’re alright.”

You just nod while looking down at the elevator floor, not wanting to argue. When the doors open you follow Penelope to her car, sitting in the passenger seat. She starts the engine and the next thing you know you’re at your apartment building.

Penelope takes your bag and walks you into the building all the way to your apartment. You walk in the door and she leads you to your bedroom instructing you lay down and get some rest. As soon as she leaves the room you change into comfortable pajamas and lay under your bundle of blankets.

As much as you want to sleep you feel yourself overthinking, everything that could have gone wrong today did, Rossi, Derek, and Penelope are never going to see you the same way anymore. You can feel your chest tighten as you hold back a sob. 

Despite your best efforts, you feel tears threatening to spill over. Without a warning they do and you can’t hold back the awful sound that comes with them. Burying your head in your pillow you do your best to make sure Penelope doesn’t hear them. Much to your disdain, she does hear them and you can hear your bedroom door quietly creek open. 

You shut your eyes even tighter refusing to unbury your head from the pillow. For a second you think she’s simply gone until you feel her sit on the space next to you. You can feel a hand stroking your head as you continue to cry. It’s comforting, to say the least, but why does she have to make this so hard.

o0o

Once you fall asleep Penelope goes back into the living room, pulling out her phone. She immediately sits on the couch and calls Morgan, “What is wrong Derek, what are you hiding from me. I’m scared ok. She won’t talk to me and I just watched her cry herself to sleep. What is going on.” She’s panicking now truly unsure of how to handle this situation.

“Hey, baby girl, calm down ok. Let her rest, she’s going through some stuff, I’m sure she’ll be back to normal by morning,” he sounds too calm, she knows he’s hiding something.

“No, Derek. What do you mean she’s going through some stuff. What aren’t you telling me? You know what happens when I get anxious and stressed, good things do not come of it.” She’s on the verge of yelling now.

“I know you’re concerned, but it’s not my place to tell you what she’s going through. You’re just going to have to wait until she opens up.” Now she knows for sure that there’s something that he's not telling her.

“I don’t think you understand Derek. I care about y/n and if there is something mega important you are not telling me I will spam everything you own with viruses. And that is a threat,” all she can hear from the other end is an exasperated sigh. “Derek Morgan, I love this woman and I swear to the tech gods if there is something going on that you’re not telling me I will stop talking to you.”

This seems to break through to him and she can hear him take in a deep breath as he explains everything that happened yesterday.

o0o

You wake up with a pounding headache not remembering what happened yesterday until it all comes back at once. You cringe not believing your own memory. Rolling over and checking the time you realize you should’ve been up more than an hour ago. Getting out of bed you grab a towel and change of clothes heading out of your bedroom and to the bathroom. 

Walking through your living room you’re startled to see Penelope asleep on your couch. Careful not to disturb her, you walk to the bathroom and shut the door. You finish your shower in record time. You walk out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, making a pot of coffee. 

Walking back into the living room you see that Penelope woke up and is sitting on the couch. You mentally note how cute she is half asleep before scolding yourself. “Do you want a cup of coffee,” you ask, wanting to spend more time like this before having to go to the office.

“That would be wonderful, thank you” she smiles as you go to grab her coffee. 

o0o

You’re sitting in Penelope’s car parked outside her apartment building waiting for her to come back. You decide to call Morgan knowing he would probably call you at some point anyway.

You pull out your phone second-guessing yourself before pushing the call button, not able to turn back at this point because you know he’ll just call back a hundred times. 

~

The team is going over the case with the local PD when Derek’s phone starts buzzing in his pocket. Looking at caller ID, he walks over to Hotch telling him that he has to take this call. Walking out of the building he accepts the call. “Hey y/n, are you ok?” He sounds genuinely worried. 

“Yeah. I’m fine. Yesterday was awful, I definitely was not myself. But, I don't want you to worry about me” You know you shouldn’t be hiding things from him but you don’t want him to ask any more questions.

“Well as long as you can promise me you’ll help us on this case and bring your unsub catching expertise I’ll stop worrying.” he sounds like he’s begging, “also we’ve pretty much established the profile already so it’s only a matter of time before we catch this sick son of a bitch.”

“Come on, all you guys individually are at least three times better than I am at catching unsubs. And I think that's a new record on the fastest profile ever.” You know he’s just trying to cheer you up, and it’s almost working. 

“But you’ll still help Penelope, for me.” He sounds like he’s begging you to help them now. 

“Yes, I promise. You guys stay safe out there.” you hang up the phone and set it back in your pocket.

o0o

Getting back to Quantico you really have nothing else to do but sit and wait for the team to need something. After about an hour of thumb-twiddling the phone rings. Garcia answers, “talk dirty to me,” she says a smirk on her face. 

“Not now babygirl, we need an address. The unsub made a mistake and we caught him on video, we have a name but we need to find him.” 

“Ok, give me the name,” she rolls her chair over to her computer screen getting ready to type something in as soon as Morgan speaks. 

“His name is Samuel Bekot, work your magic.” 

“He has no listed address, but give me just a second and I’ll make it happen.” She's typing furiously on her keyboard now.

“Ok, I’ve got it. His last known address was with a roommate, his name was never listed. I had to go back through bank transfers, he clearly didn’t want a money trail so he covered it up by just transferring the rent to the roommate. The address is 6317 44th Street North, its an apartment complex, room 213.”

“Thanks, baby girl, I’ll keep you on the phone until we get there, do you have any other useful information about the unsub?” You can hear car doors in the background.

“Give me just a moment and I might be able to dig up a little something extra.” She's back to typing now. “Ok, turns out this roommate of his went missing a few months ago, local PD never found out what happened to him. And there seems to be a long list of mysterious accidents surrounding him since the age of 5. Also one more thing he didn’t show up to work today,” 

You accidentally let out a chuckle, catching her attention and she sends you a quizzical look, “Penelope Garcia, is there anything you can’t do?” you question, not knowing what has come over you.

“Gather up my wits and ask you out,” she says in almost a whisper. The look in her eyes telling you, however, that she meant it.

You walk over to where she’s sitting, “what?” you ask, your voice coming out a whisper, the words softer than intended.

You’re now only a few feet apart, she closes some of the distance making it only a few inches. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she’s smiling now. You lean forward feeling your lips hover inches from each other for a moment before her lips hit yours. You can feel her smiling into the kiss as you move your hands to cup her face, you can feel her arms snake around your waist as she pulls you closer. 

Penelope realizes she’s still on call when she can hear snickering in her headset. You can hear Spencer yell somewhere on the other end, “I called it, you guys owe me 20 bucks.”

“You guys completely suck,” Penelope chuckles before hanging up the phone, pulling you back in to finish what you started. “I love you y/n,” she breathes into the kiss. You feel like jello under her touch, but you wouldn't want to feel any other way.

“I love you too Penelope Garcia,” you say, pulling her closer, the feeling of her lips on yours igniting your entire body.

**Author's Note:**

> I would just like to say that writing these fics makes me happy and sad at the same time but when I post at three am the sad boi hours really start to hit.


End file.
